Public Media Futures Forum: Localism & Sustainability

Tuesday, July 9th, 2013
10:00am - 3:00pm
At the headquarters of
Georgia Public Media

This is the latest installment in an on-going discussion of strategic issues facing public media leaders as they take their organizations into the next decade of national and community service. Scroll down to read the live chat comments.

This session is based largely on two discussions we hosted last year: in our 2012 "Development Forum," associated with the PMDMC. Our group of development leaders at that Forum helped us identify two of the most important revenue opportunities in the coming decade: increased major gifts and the migration of traditional membership programs to focus on "sustainers." Then, in a series of surveys and discussions supported by public radio's regional organizations, we learned that a large majority of managers are looking to "go local," meaning: they want to expand the volume of programming and service that is controlled by and produced by their station or regional network.

On July 9, we will look at the financial and fund-raising implications of these two currents of work and thought: How will stations realize their intention to "go local?" In particular, how will stations use (or overcome) the large body of research that suggests local programming all too often fails to match the interests and values of core listeners or viewers, many of whom are attracted to national programming?